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Trinidad Leatherbacks, Large and Small

By Andrew C. Revkin June 13, 2012 8:21 amJune 13, 2012 8:21 am

David HuntleyCarl Safina with baby leatherback turtles in Trinidad.

David HuntleySafina with an adult female leatherback.

Carl Safina, the peripatetic ocean conservationist and author, is in Trinidad, filming for the PBS “Saving the Ocean” program. He sent photographs of his interactions on a beach with newborn and egg-laying leatherback turtles (the species that’s the focus of his book “Voyage of the Turtle”). He included this “Postcard” (please send one yourself if you are in a place or situation that resonates with Dot Earth themes):

Leatherback turtles. They start out very little, and if all their luck holds, one out of 2,500 come back 25 years later–as dinosaurs. There are a lot more leatherbacks here now than 20 years ago because in Trinidad they are no longer killed while nesting. The hatchlings are from this week. Adults lay eggs April thru August. Females dig an average of 6 nests 10 days apart during a nesting season (they come ashore for nesting every other year). So earlier nests are hatching now, while females are still laying new clutches that will hatch later this summer.

You can learn more about the status of leatherback turtles in Trinidad at the Nature Seekers Web site. While they are mostly protected there now, and doing well in other spots, including Gabon, the species is still listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to pass nine billion. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. Dot Earth was created by Andrew Revkin in October 2007 -- in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship -- to explore ways to balance human needs and the planet's limits.